Allseas Group S.A. is a Dutch offshore contractor specialising in pipelay, heavy lift and subsea construction. It was founded in 1985 by owner and president

Edward Heerema Edward Heerema (born 1947) is a Dutch engineer, businessman and he was the sole owner of Allseas, a major offshore oil business company. The company is now run by his son Pieter. Through Allseas, he was the owner of the largest ship in the world, t ...

, employs 4,000 people and operates worldwide. The company is headquartered in

Châtel-Saint-Denis Châtel-Saint-Denis (; , locally ''Tsathi'' , or ''Châtél-Sent-Denis'', locally ''Tsathi-Chin-Dèni'') is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality and district capital of the district of Veveyse (district), Veveyse in the Cantons of Switzer ...

, Switzerland. It also owns a subsidiary, Allseas Engineering B.V., based in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

with offices in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

and

Enschede Enschede (; local ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the province of Overijssel and the Twente region of the eastern Netherlands. The east of the urban area reaches ...

, which provide project management and engineering services to the group. The company also operates project and engineering offices out of Australia, Malaysia, Qatar, Brazil and the United States. Allseas operates a versatile fleet of specialised heavy-lift, pipelay and subsea installation vessels. The company has installed over 20,000 km of subsea pipeline worldwide using S-lay technology, with diameters ranging from 2 to 48 inches. Allseas launched its first vessel ''Lorelay'', the world's first pipelay vessel to operate on full dynamic positioning, in 1986. It also owns ''

Pioneering Spirit ''Pioneering Spirit'' (formerly ''Pieter Schelte'') is a split hull crane vessel owned by the Switzerland-based Allseas Group designed for the single-lift installation and removal of large oil and gas platforms, and pipelines. The , vessel is ...

'', the world's largest vessel, designed for the single-lift installation and removal of large oil and gas platforms and the installation of record-weight pipelines.

History

Allseas was founded in January 1985 by Edward Heerema, son of the late Pieter Schelte Heerema, founder of the Dutch offshore construction and installation company

Heerema Marine Contractors Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) is a contractor headquartered in the Netherlands most notable for operation of three of the largest crane vessels in the offshore industry. History Heerema Marine Contractors was formed in 1948 by Pieter Schelte ...

. Offices subsequently opened in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The company spent its early days developing the concept of dynamically positioned (DP) subsea pipelay. Allseas acquired the former bulk carrier ''Natalie Bolten'' in 1985 and converted it for DP pipelay at the Boele shipyard in

Bolnes {{Infobox settlement , official_name = Bolnes, municipality of Ridderkerk , image_flag = Ridderkerk snow bolnes.jpg , flag_size = 250px , image_shield = , shield_size = , image_map = Ridderkerk-bolnes.png , mapsize = 250px , subdivision_type = Cou ...

, the Netherlands. The vessel was christened ''Lorelay'' in Rotterdam on 26 April 1986. ''Lorelay'' immediately entered service and successfully executed her first pipelay contract, the 8-inch, 1.8-km Helder A-B pipeline, for

Unocal Union Oil Company of California, and its holding company Unocal Corporation, together known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headqu ...

in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. In 2007, Allseas announced plans to build a twin-hulled platform installation/decommissioning and pipelay vessel. At 382 m long and 124 m wide, the vessel would be the largest ever built. It was to be named ''Pieter Schelte'' after the offshore pioneer Pieter Schelte Heerema, father of Allseas’ owner and founder Edward Heerema, however this naming caused controversy with some politicians and Jewish groups due to Pieter's previous service in the

Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, for which he was jailed for three years after the war. In February 2015, Allseas stated that the ship would be renamed ''

''. A criminal trial in the UK in 2016 revealed that Allseas was the victim of a multi-million-pound fraud. In 2011, they invested £73 million with investors led by Luis Nobre claiming to have links to the Vatican and Spanish nobility. In 2018, Allseas announced its intention to build an even larger version of ''Pioneering Spirit'', named ''Amazing Grace'', which is scheduled to be delivered in 2022. However, in July 2020, Allseas announced that it would suspend the project indefinitely.

Fleet

The company owns several vessels which are used for its offshore construction activities. Hidden Gem to be added. Sandpiper to be added.

References

{{refend Construction and civil engineering companies of Switzerland Privately held companies of Switzerland Oilfield services companies Swiss companies established in 1985 Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1985 Companies based in the canton of Fribourg